Juries Find Meta and YouTube Liable in Back-to-Back Social Media Addiction Verdicts

Juries found Meta and YouTube liable in back-to-back trials for addictive platform design harming children, awarding $381 million combined in damages.

Juries Find Meta and YouTube Liable in Back-to-Back Social Media Addiction Verdicts Juries found Meta and YouTube liable in back-to-back trials for addictive platform design harming children, awarding $381 million combined in damages. Aaron Rafferty March 28, 2026 Key Takeaways: A Los Angeles jury on March 25 found Meta and YouTube negligent for designing addictive platforms that harmed a young user's mental health, awarding $6 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The day before, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million for knowingly failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on its platforms. The verdicts represent the first time juries have treated social media platforms as defective products for their addictive design, a precedent that could reshape thousands of pending lawsuits. Two juries delivered verdicts against Meta in two days. Both found the company liable. Neither is small. On March 25, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design of their platforms, ruling that addictive features were a substantial factor in causing depression, body dysmorphia, and suicidal thoughts in a plaintiff who began using Instagram and YouTube as a child. The jury awarded $6 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages, with Meta bearing 70% of responsibility and YouTube 30%. The day before, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for violating state consumer protection laws related to child sexual exploitation on its platforms. That case was the first jury trial to find Meta liable for activities on its platform. The legal strategy in both cases bypassed Section 230 protections by targeting platform design rather than user-generated content. Internal Meta documents presented